Gaming as a Hobby

I was talking to Ed the other day when he revealed that he has not been gaming much recently.He felt that he would still enjoy "hardcore" (i.e. games that require time commitment and grinding), but he did not feel he should spend all his time on that anymore. Hence, he only plays games that he could get in and out quickly. Games like Teamfortress 2.

That is pretty much how I feel about gaming now, I responded.

Gaming is a hobby. It's as legitimate a hobby as knitting, or playing chess, fitting jigsaw puzzles, or any of the other hobbies people take up. People decide what hobbies to take up, and how much time they want to spend on them.

Gaming isn't my only hobby. It is just the hobby that's taken up a lot of my time as long as I can remember. But my interest in gaming is waning. I still enjoy gaming, but I find myself changing, wanting to do other things than gaming.

Things that could be as "boring" as just walking around a park, or reading a book.

The urge to turn off the computer with the habit of having the computer around and on.

I ask myself these questions:

1) How much do I enjoy gaming? (As compared to: how much do I enjoy doing [insert blank]?)

2) What playing a computer game do for me as a person? (In contrast with: What does [insert blank] do for me as a person?)

3) (When gaming,) should I be doing something else right now, that I am not doing because I am gaming? (In contrast with: when doing [insert blank], is there something else I should be doing right now, that I am not doing because of what I am doing?)

I find the answers to these three questions not very encouraging. Of course, the unencouraging answers also apply to other things than gaming...